Daily Archives: April 12, 2011

Desktop PCs with two monitors are becoming a common sight, but laptops with two screens…? Not unless you’re seeing double. That could change with devices like Toshiba’s Mobile Monitor, which the Japanese company has shown for the first time along with a new range of high-performance business laptops. Read more

Amazon has announced it is to sell its Kindle e-reader for $25 less than the lowest current list price — with adverts and other types of sponsored content, PaidContent reports. The first companies to advertise include Buick, Chase, Olay, and Visa and the promotions will appear on either the screen saver or the bottom of the home page.

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, the identical twins who claimed Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for building the social network that became Facebook, lost their final battle with the company in US courts on Monday, exhausting their legal options for claiming any further stake in the company.

The Winklevosses, whose initial claims against Facebook were popularised in the film, The Social Network, asked the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in January to dissolve the handwritten settlement agreement they signed with Facebook, including cash and stock valued at $65m.

A new “Direct Mode” feature being launched this week by Eye-Fi, the Wi-Fi-enabled SD memory card people, could change the relationship between our digital cameras and the cellphones and tablets we carry with us.

Cameras using upgraded Eye-Fi cards will be able to wirelessly transfer photos and videos direct to their smartphones and devices like the iPad, without taking their usual route to the “cloud” and then onto users’ PCs or online photo services.

A new “Direct Mode” feature being launched this week by Eye-Fi, the Wi-Fi-enabled SD memory card people, could change the relationship between our digital cameras and the cellphones and tablets we carry with us. Cameras using upgraded Eye-Fi cards will be able to wirelessly transfer photos and videos direct to their smartphones and devices like the iPad, without taking their usual route to the “cloud” and then onto users’ PCs or online photo services. Read more

When you have $58bn in the bank you can afford to think big. If any other company had just put down $168m to back a solar power plant – particularly one based on technology that has yet to be used at this scale – it would surely have caused some waves.

But for Google, which on Monday became a significant equity investor in a project that is set to double the output of solar-generated electricity in the US, it just seemed like business as usual. Read more

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Richard Waters, Tim Bradshaw, Hannah Kuchler and Sarah Mishkin in the FT's San Francisco bureau share their views - plus tech insights from Robert Cookson and Chris Nuttall in London.

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About the authors

Richard Waters has headed the FT's San Francisco bureau since 2002 and covers Google and Microsoft, among other things. A former New York bureau chief for the FT, he is intrigued by Silicon Valley's unique financial and business culture, and is looking forward to covering his second Tech Bust.

Chris Nuttall has been online and messing around with computers for more than 20 years. He reported from the FT's San Francisco bureau on semiconductors, video games, consumer electronics and all things interwebby from 2004 to 2013, before returning to London.

Tim Bradshaw is the FT's digital media correspondent, and has just moved from London to join our team in San Francisco. He has covered start-ups such as Twitter and Spotify, as well as the online ambitions of more established media companies, such as the BBC iPlayer. He also covers the advertising, marketing and video-game industries. Tim has been writing about technology, business and finance since 2003.

Robert Cookson is the FT's digital media correspondent in London. He
covers digital enterprise in media, from the music industry to local newspapers and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. A former Hong Kong markets correspondent, he is interested in the interplay
between old media and new technologies.

Hannah Kuchler writes about technology and Silicon Valley from the FT's San Francisco bureau. She covers social media including Facebook and Twitter and the dark and mysterious world of cybersecurity. Hannah has worked for the FT in London, Hong Kong and New York, reporting on everything from British politics to the Chinese internet.

Sarah Mishkin in a correspondent in San Francisco, where she covers payments, e-commerce, and political news on the West Coast. Prior to California, she has worked as an FT reporter in New York, London, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, and most recently in Taiwan, where she covered Chinese internet companies, semiconductors, and tech supply chains.